RLoya

Public health: Steady, family-friendly hours. Decent pay and good benefits. Much more healthy work load and more sense of accomplishing good outcomes for my patients than hospital environment

Thank you for bringing up the origins of this whole issue. I had no idea but it makes a lot of sense. If healthcare became more expensive in the 70s and the government wanted to cut the costs it was going to have to pay, of course it would do whatever it took to offset that expense onto somebody else - regardless of the mess it would cause later. Just like you, I'm weary of putting a bandaid on an issue and hoping that it will cure the disease. I'm not against government but I'm also sceptical of its good intentions and am hesitant to give it any more power/oversight of society than it already has. Thus I don't think government-mandated staffing laws are the answer. The PPS as you described it seems to have done enough damage that we don't need to dig the hole any deeper through more government regulation. Personally, I'm of the mind that there needs to be a nationwide nursing walk-out. I know that is a very big thing to ask of people when we all have mouths to feed and bills to pay. But that, imo, is the only way we're going to get the attention we desperately need to make our case. We need to stop hiding behind middlemen - the govt, lobbyists, interest groups, etc - and start advocating for ourselves and our patients by ourselves. If we're not willing to put our money where our mouth is, that shows where our loyalties really lie. If blacks and whites hadn't practiced civil disobedience in the 60s and 70s consequences be damned, I would not be where I am today - a black female BSN RN. At the very least we should all abandon the hospital in droves, find other work, and refuse to return until they implement our suggestions for improvement.

I worked in the hospital for 3 years. I never did take a liking to it and I worked weekend nights for most of it. I'm glad I pushed through because I have more confidence and respect for myself. However, I always felt like I was risking my license because there is so much thrown at hospital nurses. It doesn't matter which floor you're on or which hospital IMO. I am also more book-smart and analytical and enjoy slower-paced settings where I can think things out and practice skills repeatedly. I now work for the health department in an STD clinic and love it. Try finding a public health job once you've reached a year in the hospital if you still don't like it. Hospital nursing isn't for everyone and that is perfectly fine

The idea of abortion turns my stomach. So do the majority of these comments justifying it. To simply state that each person has a right to make their own decisions would have sufficed. But to go on to describe a fetus as a parasite is on a level I cannot fathom and hopefully never will. I am Christian and as I understand the Bible, abortion is never ok. I can understand the ethical dilemmas in the rare cases of incest, rape, or severe deformities. It is definitely a gray area and I can't honestly say what I would do in those situations. I also understand those women who choose to have abortions out of not having a stable life or finances. I can understand but I don't condone it. Still people want to do what they want to do. That's on them. Just as I don't want people imposing their atheism or anti-religion beliefs on me, I don't want to do that to them. This country may have been founded on a Christian mindset, but it is a very different place today. I will continue to live my convictions out to the best of my abilities and let God deal with the rest. My only qualm is that all tax payers, regardless of their position on such a controversial and complicated topic, are helping to fund government-endorsed facilities like Planned Parenthood. . If you want an abortion pay for it yourself, not through the government i.e. the American people.

I hear what some of you are saying about having a Messiah complex. I think OP has a point too though. I'm glad that you guys have learned how to be at peace with some of the frustrating parts of the hospital. The hospital would be a much worse place without you. There truly are problems with the hospital system, however, and probably have been for decades. While we shouldn't pity ourselves or hype ourselves up as saints, it is important for patients' sakes at the very least to acknowledge these problems and to acknowledge that they are not ok. By justifying or minimizing them, we enable those at the top (i.e. hospital administration) to continue to turn a blind eye or to even worsen the plight of patients and health care workers. I'm glad, OP, that you are paying attention to the fact that we health care professionals are not providing the best care to our patients through the current health care infrastructure. There is definitely room for improvement. I felt exactly like you. I worked in ortho for 2 years, med-tele for 1 year, and now work at the county health department in an STD clinic. I got fed up with the fact that we focused on saving lives but not improving them. The goal of health care should be that patients rarely need to be admitted to the hospital. Especially patients with chronic conditions. While each patient has free choice and is ultimately responsible for his actions, constant hospitalization for complications of chronic diseases reflects on our health care community as well. These patients tend to need more than medicine for their health issues. Nursing is supposedly a holistic field. It doesn't seem that way in the hospital where we are very reactive, barely able to put out fires let alone prevent them in the first place. It's great that you in the hospital are taking the time to turn patients, clean them, help with bathroom care, etc. But patients do need more than that. They need help coping with and accepting that they have chronic conditions. They need to have realistic, practical ways of managing their conditions so that hospital visits are few and far between. They need support systems and accurate, relevant education about their diseases and the importance of managing them. OP, I think the public health field might be a good fit for you. You might lose a few hospital nursing skills but you gain an immense array of other nursing skills. You truly have more autonomy and therefore more opportunity for critical thinking. You learn what to do in real life when someone passes out. In the hospital I felt tethered to all the gadgets to care for patients. Plus you get to use more therapeutic communication, history-taking interview skills, etc. As an STD nurse, I have my own exam room. I draw blood, take patient history, and do a full exam on each patient I care for. I encourage them, I support them, and I challenge them to make better choices. I learn why they make certain choices and I empathize. It has been such a breath of fresh air. Those who think that there is no life after the hospital, not true. If you are getting burned out, don't put on a brave face. Move on to a field that truly recognizes and utilizes your invaluable skills appropriately (especially your empathy and focus on the well being of others). If not for yourself, for the patients who need you. And for your family, who probably are most happy when you yourself are happy and at peace.

There's also the complicated issue of the healthcare system as a whole. I don't understand it completely but this is what I gather. Health insurance costs used to be pushed off onto employers. It became too expensive for employers to handle as more Americans became more unhealthy (diabetes, hypertension, etc). Now the cost of insurance are pushed onto the hospitals. So maybe one solution - which won't happen overnight - is that we nurses need to get more into public health. We need to help people learn how to live with these chronic conditions so that they don't deteriorate to the point that they have to be admitted to the hospital in the first place. I left the hospital and now work at the county health dept. I get to actually learn more about the illnesses I'm treating and then better educate my patients about how to deal with them. I don't want to be part of the current healthcare method of just running from one crisis to another. I want to prevent these crises all together. The other issue is Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement. Again just what I've gathered, I'm probably off. A patient with illness X is expected to recover in Y amount of days. The government will reimburse the hospital but only if patient is discharged on time and does not have any complications that require a longer stay. A lot of these patients are sick with chronic diseases and will realistically have to stay longer because the expected recovery time is based on healthy, uncomplicated patient cases. So now hospitals are feeling the squeeze and looking for any way possible to offset the cost of not being reimbursed as easily as they once were. Plus the hospital execs don't want to stop living their comfy lifestyles. So they push the burden onto everyone below them. I have no idea if any of this will ever improve. I do hope that we nurses will at least go down with a fight, however. Nurses should continue leaving the hospital in droves and even strike. Get America to pay attention to our plight and then pull back the curtain so that they can see for themselves the horror that is the hospital system

Thank you for posting this! My experience in the hospital was also the same. Back then I would come on here looking for encouragement that there were other options besides the hospital that would have the positive environment you describe at your current job. I escaped from the hospital last September and like you, I finally feel like I'm able to be a true nurse not whatever the hospital deems me to be (i.e. janitor, customer service agent, waitress, etc). Hopefully other nurses who are miserable in the hospital will find this nugget of hope and be inspired to continue searching for jobs that respect and appreciate us nurses. Don't settle for the abusive hospital system, it only enables them to continue hurting their staff and their patients